Posts from January 2006

January 29, 2006

[...] In the time-honored way of the theater, Ms. McClernan and Mr. Flagg
figured the show must go on. With the help of an assistant (who
eventually received the program credit for direction), they supervised
the remaining rehearsals, either largely restaging the play or
retaining most of Mr. Einhorn's contributions, depending on whose side
you believe. In any case, "Tam Lin" opened, ran for its scheduled 10
performances and closed. But the drama was not over. Soon playwright
and producer were embroiled in a lawsuit that could ruin them
personally and has huge implications for directors and playwrights
everywhere.

The main interest of that suit, which Judge Lewis A. Kaplan
of Federal District Court in Manhattan has scheduled for trial in
April, is not whether an artist deserves to be paid for work his
employers deem unsatisfactory. What's really at stake is something much
larger, because Mr. Einhorn claims in his complaint that his staging
contributions to "Tam Lin" — contributions that his former
collaborators say they excised — constitute a copyrighted work of
intellectual property, owned by him, and that the defendants must
therefore pay for infringing the copyright. When the lawsuit was filed,
in October 2005, a new run of the play was already in rehearsal, this
time directed by Ms. McClernan herself, who had always intended to make
"Tam Lin" an annual Halloween event. Because Mr. Einhorn says that even
these new performances represented unauthorized use of his work, the
potential tab, based on the maximum allowable statutory damage of
$150,000 per infringement, is now up around $3 million, not including
several other remedies he is requesting — along with his original
$1,000 director's fee.

Under the circumstances, it seems
questionable whether "Tam Lin," with its kidnapped prince, female hero
and happy ending, will return in 2006. But many playwrights, including
Ms. McClernan, feel that a more dangerous threat is lurking in Mr.
Einhorn's copyright claim: the kidnapping of their plays. As a result,
the famously collaborative process of theater-making is now shadowed by
questions. Are directors engaged in anything akin to the kind of
authorship protected by copyright laws? If so, what's to stop them from
demanding payment whenever a play they once directed is revived? And
what would that mean to the free flow of ideas in an art form that
borrows heavily from all available sources? [read on...]

January 27, 2006

01.27.06 - The Art Newspaper
reports changes at London's Serpentine Gallery, which has created the
post of Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Director of
International Projects for Swiss curator Hans Ulrich-Obrist. Meanwhile,
the Serpentine says goodbye to Los Angeles native Rochelle Steiner,
chief curator since 2001, who takes over as director of New York's
Public Art Fund next month from Tom Eccles. Elsewhere, Artnet
reports that freelance curator Eugenie Tsai has been named director of
curatorial affairs at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. Tsai served as
curator at the Whitney from 1994 to 2000. And e-flux
reports that Revolver founder Christoph Keller has left the
Frankfurt-based art publishing house, handing the reins over to Ann
Theobold.

Lennon, Weinberg gallery in Chelsea will be hosting Flux Factory's first-ever Benefit Auction. Proceeds will go directly to 2006 programming. Works have been donated by the following artists: Sol LeWitt, Royal Art Lodge, Cory Arcangel, Ian Burns, and Stephen Westfall, and others...

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online (PayPal) (tickets will be $35 at the door)

Flux Factory began as a collective living space in 1994, in an old spice factory in Williamsburg, New York City. Its original members were undergraduates at the New School For Social Research (now New School University). About four years later, with a new stage built and twice as many members, the Flux Factory living room evolved into a site for art events and performances of all kinds. Flux became an official 501 (c)(3) nonprofit in 1998 and moved to its present location in Long Island City, Queens in 2002.

An upcoming exhibit of the late Keith Haring's artwork in the Reading
Public Museum will not be censored and will include some pieces that
visitors could find offensive, the museum's chief executive said
Wednesday.

Those
pieces will be in a separate room along with other less controversial
works, and a sign will warn people about the exhibit, Ronald C. Roth
said.

"We don't have a lot of
work that people might find troubling, but we have some pieces they
might find controversial," he said. "It's not being censored. We want
to be sensitive to the public. They can make their own decisions."

Roth
said Berks County Commissioner Mark C. Scott is trying to characterize
Haring's work as obscene, even though Haring, a Berks native, is
recognized worldwide as one of the greatest artists of his time.

On
Tuesday, Scott prevented Haring's Statue of Liberty mural from being
hung on the side of the county services center to draw attention to the
exhibit that opens Feb. 18.

Scott said the statue's thumb looks like male genitalia.

"Imagine
what would have happened if we had hung the mural and some enterprising
person researching Haring on the Internet would have come across all of
his works replete with their depictions of forced deviant intercourse
and sexual degradation of religious symbols," he said. "I did my
homework. I anticipated the public's concern, and I acted on it.

"I'm not saying Keith Haring's work should be banished, but I don't believe it's appropriate for a public venue."

Scott,
who said he received dozens of calls from supporters Wednesday, said he
didn't mean to set off a communitywide debate on censorship.

"I'm a pretty tolerant guy," he said.

The county has an interest beyond the mural because it pays for the museum's security, he said.

County records show the payments totaled $144,686 in 2005.

Meanwhile, Haring's works are arriving from private collections and museums all over the country.

The exhibit is appropriate because Haring was born in Reading, raised in Kutztown and still has family in Berks, Roth said.

"He
was a superstar of the 1980s," Roth said. "I was really struck by how
many people in Berks County revered Keith Haring and what he had done.

"I thought it would be good to do a show."

Contact reporter Mary E. Young at 610-478-6292 or myoung@readingeagle.com.

As for Keith's feelings about the town of his birth and his home
town of Kutztown, he told me on more than one occasion that he hated
Kutztown and Berks County because they are homophobic, small-minded,
and backwards. He left because he couldn't stand it here.

As for my opinion about publically funded art, In general, I'm not in favor of public funding for the arts.

The world of art is and has always been an elitist venture. Even
though many artists endeavor to create popular and populist art during
their lifetimes, their art ends up primarily in the possession of and
under the control of the economic and cultural elite. [...]

In general, Keith was well aware of the ways in which his work would
be misinterpreted and compromised via its assimilation into a culture
he rejected.

He was not a radiant baby (a term invented by an art critic) he was
a complex adult who endured a great deal of pain and suffering -
especially in his hometown.

At every turn he opposed the society and culture into which he was
born. He worked hard to create his own alternatives but alas, the
strength of his vision has been diminished on a daily basis since the
day he died - and most often it is his "supporters" who do the most
harm to his legacy.